There's no accounting for taste - or it there...

Picture the scene; a couple are out for dinner. One, usually the lady, will order a salad. The other, more often than not the gentleman, will order a steak and chips. During the meal, the salad eater will pinch a few chips (sometimes more than a few), from the steak eater’s plate. This often leads to feelings of hostility on the part of the steak eater, if not a full blown argument along the lines of “I asked you and you said you didn’t want chips! You could have ordered your own portion. Why did you say you didn’t want any and now you stealing mine?”

The problem is; in an effort to be healthy, when presented with a menu, people often order what they feel is a healthy meal. However, when the meals are placed in front of them, cravings for the less healthy option can overpower them. This explains why they can’t stop themselves pinching the odd chip.

Imagine though if you could stop these cravings, and one step further in fact, crave the salad!

Cravings are partially governed by the bacteria that inhabit our gut. Our gut contains over one trillion bacteria of many different strains. The different strains require different foodstuffs for energy. For example, some bacteria require fats while some require carbohydrates. Their presence is thought to cause cravings for that kind of food. Put simply, the presence of large numbers of fat craving bacteria in your gut, cause you to crave fat.

Therefore, in the future, with the right balance of bacteria, we could be programmed to crave certain foods, or alternatively, not crave certain fatty foods! Watch this space.